Here’s a little taste of Eimhin’s contribution: An tEarrach Thiar
Based on a poem by Máirtín Ó Direáin, with an original arrangement by Kíla and lush vocals provided by Lisa Hannigan, the film takes place in that golden hour, as the sun sets on a spring day on the island of Inis Mór.

You can view a previous post, featuring photos taken on a research trip to Inis Mór here: LINK

Here’s how I went about putting together one of the early shots:

Initial storyboards, roughly laying out the pertinent elements and actions involved in the scene

Layout drawing, locking down the details, and adding in the foreground element to help with framing

Timelapse of the background being painted

Final painting. The addition of some cliffs in the BG, helped to delineate the brightly lit ‘steps’ from the sky

And here it is comped in with the characters (character animation by Katie Sherlock)

Within each scene the BG painting was separated into different layers, with some clone-stamping to cover any overlap. This allows some repositioning, and addition of cloud movement in the sky, or wave movement on the water. In addition to these digital edits, some other BGs required more lighting in comp, but as this one is one of the introductory shots it wasn’t as extreme in terms of photoshop work to reign in or emphasise the painted elements.

Here are some photos of our brilliant animation crew at work:

Ciara Nolan at work on a scene

Svetlana Sobcenko blocking out an overview of Inis Mór

Katie Sherlock working on a scene

Some painting tests

Under the watchful eye of an Lon Dubh

Our singer, Lisa Hannigan, with crew members Katie & Ciara

Thanks for reading, I look forward to sharing more of this project with you in the coming months!

- E.

The sun setting over the Aran Islands, as viewed from Fanore, Co. Clare.

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2 thoughts on “An tEarrach Thiar – BG Process”

I am very happy to share with the Irish community here in London. We need to teach our children the language of their heritage, not easy in a fast paced society. Cartoon and animation is the perfect medium.
Please keep me posted and good luck and success for the future. Slan.